The recent unprecedented rise in consensual unions is poorly understood and may have profound consequences for American family life. To further explore the phenomenon, the proposed research will use data from the 1987 National Survey of Families and Households to address 4 central questions: 1. What are the chances of entering, staying in, and leaving a consensual union? 2. What is the relationship between entering a consensual union and the chances of entering a first marriage? 3. What is the relationship between entering a consensual union and the chances a marriage will dissolve? 4. What are the relationships between the rise in consensual unions and life course differences between males and females? blacks, whites, and Mexican Americans? different socioeconomic strata? The proposed work will combine multistate life table and event history methods, and examine male and female cohorts born in the years 1928-1967. The first stage of the research will use retrospective life histories to follow each cohort through life and through six marital/union statuses: (1) Never Married, Never in Union: (2) first Union: (3) Never Married, After First Union: (4) First Marriage (Never in Union) (5) First Marriage to First Union Partner: and (6) First Marriage After First Union. The second stage of the research will use event history techniques to incorporate the effects of race/ethnicity, parental socioeconomic status and educational attainment. The life table format will yield summary measures that directly address the 4 questions specified above, and will allow the relationships between cohabitation and first marriage to be explored over time and for each of the major components of American society.